There are hundreds of Linux distros, you are free to use any distro of your choice, but knowing which is for you can be difficult when you're new to Linux. Only through experience and experimentation can you really know which distro is for you. To help short circuit this problem we suggest some popular distro's. However, we do recommend trying others not on this list.

There are a number of ways to obtain a copy of a distro. You can ask a friend to burn you a copy and replace any CD's used in the process. This option is good if you don't have a fast or free Internet connection and a CD burner device (ISO images can range in size from 250 MB to 650 MB). If you have both, then you can download an ISO image and burn it to CD by yourself. Some distro's can be installed directly over the Internet via File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

Images are normally made available from the distro's Web Site. Now you could spend many hours scanning the Internet to get a distro, or you could just take our advice and go to LinuxISO for fresh ISO's, just like mom used to burn. Here you will find all the ISO's you'll ever need and lots of helpful information on each one of them. You will also find information on how to verify and burn ISO images.

If neither of these is an option, then consider contacting your nearest Linux User Group (LUG). Contact the LUG members and ask if one of them would be so kind as to help you. Usually somebody close to you will be able to help. Remember to replace the CD's used in this process. A list of LUG's can be found at Linux Users Groups WorldWide. Find the one closest to you, subscribe to their mailing list, introduce yourself and ask for help.

Here are our recommendations: